A new resource estimate at Sino Gold’s Jinfeng Project in China has increased resources by 16% to 5.3 million ounces of gold.

The updated mineral resource is estimated to be 35.9 million tonnes at 4.5 grams/tonne gold, including measured and indicated resources of 30.5 million tonnes at 4.7 grams/tonne gold.

The new estimate has also increased reserves by 11% to 20.7 million tonnes at 5.2 grams/tonne gold for 3.5 million ounces.

The open pit reserves are now shown to be more than one million ounces while the mineralization remains open down plunge.

Sino Gold chief executive officer Jake Klein says: “These increases over the 2007 estimates demonstrate again that Jinfeng is a world-class, high-grade ore body and that it will be a ,long-life, low-cost operation.

“The new open pit reserve provides additional tonnes that will extend the life of the open pit and provide valuable operational flexibility.

“Jinfeng is already one of the largest gold mines in China and provides Sino Gold with a strong platform to rapidly grow its gold production on the world’s largest gold producing country.”

Based on open pit mining experience at Jinfeng in the past year a more conservative approach has been taken in the operation’s capacity to mine ore blocks in the open pit. The current model includes more dilution and additional low-grade ore blocks, resulting in more tonnes at a lower grade in the open pit resource.

The planned underground mine contains an estimated 2.4 million ounces of ore reserves with the remaining 1.1 million ounces contained in the planned open pit and ore stockpiles.

www.sinogold.com.au